Nessie in Yonah Lake, Northeast Georgia
Quiet Water Paddling in Northeast Georgia
There are a number of paddling opportunities in Georgia. When we found time to spend a week exploring Northeast Georgia (the area along the North Carolina border), we had a chance for some quiet water paddling.
We spent some of our time exploring near Helen, Ga before deciding on places to paddle. We looked at several large lakes, such as Lake Hartwell, but they were all unattactive. The water levels were low and lots of red clay banks were exposed. So we looked for other opportunities.
Our exploring indicated that the most attractive lakes for paddling were several Georgia Power lakes and a lake in the Lake Winfield Scott Recreation Area. The lakes we checked out were:
- Lake Winfield Scott
- Lake Seed
- Lake Yonah
- Lake Burton
- Lake Rabun
- Tullulah Falls Lake and
- Lake Tugalo
Tugalo Dam from Lake Yonah
We really wanted to paddle Lake Tugalo. We asked a young man we encountered when we were paddling Lake Yonah how to get to the boat ramp for Lake Tugalo. We followed his directions to go past turn left at the entrance to the Tullulah Gorge visitors center and follow the gravel road. We followed the directions until we got to a sign saying 4 wheel drive only beyond here. Since our mini van is not 4 wheel drive, and the road looked pretty bad, we turned around. We later found Lake Tugalo paddling preport that provided directions on how to get to Take Tugalo from the South Carolina side. We'll definetly try it next time we visit the area.
The lakes we had time to paddle on this trip were:
We had a great time at all three of these lakes.
You can find more information on paddling opportunites in Georgia at Paddling Net Georgia.